U16 Spitfires are into 2026
High level head coach Matthew Zuccato of the Under 16 AAA Windsor Jr. Spitfires is planning ahead to the looming leg of the ’25-26 season with outlook and expectancy.
In fifth place among the 11 teams of the U16 Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario, the Jr. Spitfires began the 2026 segment of the schedule with a narrow 6-4 loss to the league leading London Jr. Knights. Windsor has a record of 9-8-4 within the Alliance and will take an overall season mark of 15-14-6 into the January 15-18 Steve Richey Tournament of Champions in Peterborough.
Ahead of the stretch run of this season, Zuccato is anticipating more from his U16 Spitfires now that they are at full strength following a rash of injuries.
“We had a great start at our first tournament to get things kicked off,” Zuccato relayed to Hockey News Windsor. “We knew we had a lot of work to do to get to competing with the top teams in our league. We found out quickly that things don’t come easy and we have to be at our best every night.”
“Once we started executing our new systems,” Zuccato continued, “is when we started finding success and got back on track winning hockey games. We then got hit with the injury bug and had to find other ways to keep competing. We have gotten healthy now and hope to continue battling every night.”
Zuccato also told Hockey News Windsor that the U16 Spitfires have the makings of being a formidable foe for opponents.
“We know when our goalies are on and our players play together we can be a tough team to beat in the final stretch as we try to accomplish our goal of getting to the OHL Cup,” the veteran bench boss concluded.
LEAGUE PLAY
Following next week’s tournament, the U16 Spitfires will return to Alliance Hockey action on Tuesday, January 20 with a road match against the cross town Sun County Panthers. The U16 Spitfires then have a pair of home games at Central Park Athletics against two more opponents who are ahead of them in the standings — Saturday, January 24 at 4 p.m. against the Brantford 99ers and Sunday, January 25 versus the Huron-Perth Lakers.
SCOUTING THE SPITS
A pair of forwards from the U16 Spitfires are seen as presumptive picks for the 2026 Ontario Hockey League priority selections draft, which will be held in person on June 12-13 in Kingston. They are 5 foot 8, 155 pound Roman Shtefan and 6 foot, 170 pound Carter Trudell.
Shtefan and Trudell are 1-2 on the U16 Spitfires scoring chart and according to a smattering of OHL scouts that Hockey News Windsor reached out to, both have a strong compete level to go with skill and skating ability.
Another member of the U16 Spitfires who is on the radar of at least one reputable OHL scout is 6 foot 3 — and still growing — defenseman Logan Disher.
Disher has been described as being “very raw … but he has some tools.”